Robles writes: "Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, many sick people across the island remain in mortal peril."

Villa Hugo in Canovanas remained flooded for days after Hurricane Maria swept across the island. Reports of diseases related to water contamination have been rising. (photo: Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo/The New York Times)

ALSO SEE: Puerto Ricans Are
Drinking Water From Hazardous Waste Sites

Puerto Rico's Health Care Is in Dire Condition, Three Weeks After Maria

By Frances Robles, The New York Times

12 October 17

arry Figueroa, a teacher who went a week without the oxygen that helped him breathe, died here last week at 58. His body went unrefrigerated for so long that the funeral director could not embalm his badly decomposed corpse.

Miguel Bastardo Beroa’s kidneys are failing. His physicians at the intensive care unit at Doctors Hospital in Carolina are treating him for a bacterial disease that he probably caught in floodwaters contaminated with animal urine.

José L. Cruz wakes up in the middle of the night three times a week to secure a spot in line for dialysis. His treatment hours have been cut back to save fuel for the generators that power the center.